We are beginning break up here in Alaska….we still have lots of snow and ice ,no spring green yet….so our green for saint paddy’s day comes from the heavens ….not sure why I continue to try to capture the lights ….it never measures up once I get to the computer to edit …but I am having fun …. if it matters I still do get excited when viewing from the back of camera…..the numbers on the data page and the info from many web cams screamed storm ….. everyone seems to capture a different storm

…most of their shots were true to raining auroras…mine were just lots of green with just tinges of pinks and reds and moving so fast ….made your head and tripod dance in high gear….. early in the storm I watched the skies

… read the many pages of aurora chasers ….I can never stop laughing at the ones who think because they are taking photos everyone should bow down to their work….and their made up rules

…..their many post of aurora watching etiquette……no joke there are 18 or more pages of these fine rules on the net …..my come back to theses fine rules and guide lines…. GET A LIFE…if your shots are that important find a new spot away from all the hot viewing spots…..

it has become a very sad world when one makes rules for others on how they should act when viewing nature …… no one should have to worry about lights on a vehicle because it cause light that will ruin your photo

…no one should have to worry about your camera and tripod in the dark … try putting glow in dark reflective tape on the bottom of you tripod …

why should I have to look for another spot to view auroras just because you are taking photos….and if you are in the dark bundled up in dark clothes you need to try putting reflective tape on your aurora shooting clothes …it is your life

…yes I am a driver of an auto but you have to be responsible as well……why do all your rules of etiquette tell the new viewer or aurora shooter what to do …..what about you …why do you feel that you are in charge of a public place …I hope every new viewer turns on their lights …holds their foot on the brake light…trip over your unmarked tripod …invades your public space…..and scared you when they almost run over you ….come on people it’s a big world and a bigger state and the last time I looked the sky over head did not belong to anyone

climbing down off soap box and going back outdoors to take more shots of the awesome world ….Still Standing MOM …I AM STILL STANDING

Today is our day to go to accountant and get the bad news of what we owe…..we know already we will owe …… owe big time…..but that is life ….we could have …or should I say we should have paid in so this would not be the fact ….but keeping warm and having a full belly and just plain life dictated differently…… so here we are …..the front clump of snow in the photo says it all we are here but it could have been different …

so off we go with our hand full of papers that took their own sweet time getting here …and our bellies churn ….. thoughts of all the things going on around us scream louder than the keys of the accountants computer ….

Somehow our paying in is supposed to be what the government thinks we all should do….. seems to me back some where in history we fought so we would not be so taxed ……we seem to tax everything any more that makes someone else feel threaten … or makes other feel good…. not sure there is anything not taxed of late ….soft drinks,cigs,gas,phone,net,booze, soon it will be the grill you grill on …..

the little windsock hanging in the tree has been hanging there since fourth July ……when we first hung it up it blew back and forth in the wind ……but some time during the deep dark winter it began to hang on to the tree with each wind it clung tighter ….sort of like us hard earning people of the USA …we are strong and we will play the game til it is time to unclench our fist and step forward in battle …. we go now to the tax collector and give it our all ….I MEAN OUR ALL…..

Bump bump ….hurry up …move on….what is the hold up?….what are we sitting here for …. can we cross now….why are stop signs always red…hey leave me be I was only shaking off some ice…..hey you there you have a five o’clock shadow ….. hey I like your new shape….is it just me are does the new snow make me look bigger…..hey anyone back there willing to step up front I am melting ……
Can you hear them ….maybe I have been locked up inside to long …things just look different in the sunlight…..
Still Standing MOM….I am still standing ….

It finally happen ….we both could get together…..even when it looks like we aren’t
talking our cameras are…….we see the same light …we hear the same light …yes
hear light …it twirls around your lens and gathers force that makes you click the button that captures and draws the vision into your disks

…I needed the time out and about with like mind ….it was windy,cold to the bone but very,very sunny …I HAD FUN…thanks Vicky Padgett for an awesome time……she drove us around on very icy roads

…at temps that belonged at the real north pole …..the walk about we were not chasing the sun it was standing still for us…..it flickered off the ice and the tips of the trees

finding its way in to the tracks of the animals

…..we hear airplanes over head …birds……snowmachiners….. it was the refreshing day both for us cabin bound people along with our cameras that are starved for light of day…….but our short visit with the great outdoors and the beautiful sun had to come to a stop….

we had to stop and take photos of the piles of snow around the stop sign

all the little mounds of snow looked like they were waiting to cross the roads…. what a day ..what crazy thoughts ….here is my favorite shot of the day

A trip to town to delivery eggs and stop at bread store…to get day old bread for chicken feed addition…..then on to Clinic to get scripts to take to Va hospital to fill…I always sit in truck and wait ….hospitals and clinic are full of sick people….not a place to go if you are not sick….

we have some of the really smart raven in Fairbanks ….from early age they learn the outline of garbage bags in backs of trucks …they seem to know the difference between an Alaskan suitcase and a bag full of food….

they works in triples …one to find the gem …one to check it out and one to keep the owner for seeing the others steal said person blind….I am always on the look out for them…

I want to spend a day just taking their photos ….seems like when I do have my camera they are just feet out of the shooting range and when I don’t have my camera they are up and close talking then fluffing their head feathers and rolling their awesome eyes

….they are so smart …they have the most beautiful feathers ….and their hip hop walk is so funny to watch….I have seen as many as 50 in the Sam’s Club parking lot walking in a circle and then running at each other…. then they would throw back their heads and open their beaks and jiggle their heads up and down as if they were in some secret meeting of their family

….once saw a raven pick up a smoke that someone had dropped it was still lit the raven swallowed it down than every time he would open his beak out would come smoke or steam …either way it was silly to see….the photos here are of one shot I managed to capture the morning of the trip ….I played in picasa3 program with different ways the photos can look…..

I was lost in the light the morning I took this photo….the shadows and the light… the things that were seen in the wood grain……

trying not to forget why I was looking for more in the photo….trying not to get to caught up in learning more about my camera…trying to hold on to why I take pictures….I have almost come to the point of not taking more of the classes…Lost in the feeling was what speaks to you in a photo …this photo was about the spirit of the light playing on the wood that morn ….

Last time I was out shooting auroras … we were chasing them down the road….this was one I could see a face in the lights but it needed a little help to define and a lot of help to get rid of noise caused from such a high iso setting…..

I played around in Picasa3 for a while then I took it over to another program ….the face within just doesn’t want to be seen straight on by the eyes…..wants to play like a little night imp…

it has beeen a long time since I have had a chance to shoot …ice storms,extreme cloudy nights and just plain out lazy me….the inner me wants to go every night but the old fat lady does not want to move….

the inner face …the inner us…the one screaming for better of times and things…… but not screaming loud enough to make a difference ….